BJP President Rajnath Singh has reportedly told his RSS
bosses that Modi will be anointed the party’s PM candidate by next week
(today’s TOI). Several disturbing reports about Modi and his government (the
Vanzara letter, the sting tapes, Governor’s return of the Lok Ayukta Bill) last
week appear to have only egged on the party boss to hasten the announcement. I
suspect Rajnath Singh thinks that the reports have been planted by Modi’s
opponents, and in retort, he wants to snub them with this announcement. Well,
god bless the BJP! Or rather, Ram bless the BJP!
Rajnath Singh may succeed in using the RSS to mute out
Advani and Sushma Swaraj, but are these two the type who will happily take an
instruction of this type? Sushma Swaraj has said that she will not be able to
function as Leader of Opposition if this announcement were made. Why? Would she
morally feel unable to look other MPs in their eyes for the kind of leader her
party has chosen? Or is it that the announcement will publicly tell the world
that her chances of becoming the PM are over? Considering her seniority, she is
bound to be given a ministerial position if Modi wins…..will she be willing to
take the job under Modi? I doubt it.
And then what about Shivraj Singh Chouhan, struggling (yes,
especially after the Congress hinted that they might prop up Jyotiraditya
Scindia as their CM candidate) to retain power in MP. As per a story in ET
yesterday, “he made it clear that in
Madhya Pradesh at least, the communal polarisation that accompanies Modi’s name
would be detrimental to the party’s prospects”. Chouhan doesn’t want Modi’s
name announced before the assembly elections. Surprising isn’t it? MP has a
Muslim population of less than 5%. The Hindus in MP are solidly behind the
BJP’s Hindutva rhetoric. And even in MP, Modi is a problem? Why? Or again, is
it a case of the CM wanting to keep his chances of becoming PM open, especially
if, as expected, the BJP falls way short of a majority on its own? Like Modi
did in Gujarat, if Shivraj Singh Chouhan wins MP for the 3rd time in
a row, wouldn’t he suddenly become a strong contender for the PM?
And then what’s wrong with Manohar Parrikar? This man was
singing paeans of Modi just a few months back. It was in his state that Modi
was anointed the campaign chief. What was his need to make the statement he
made, that Godhra was a blot on Modi and
he could have handled the situation better? Why is it that BJP leaders
change their tune, and suddenly try to become liberal when they speak with
foreign media? Are they caught in some kind of a moral trap, where they are
forced to take antediluvian positions on social/religious issues inside the
country, and so they try to burnish their image when they speak with outsiders?
Hadn’t the BJP also told the US, back in 2008, that they actually supported the
Indo-US nuclear deal (Wikileaks), when they had already decided to vote against
it in Parliament? Why couldn’t they tell the US on its face that they didn’t
like the deal? But such double-speak has become quite the character of the
party. One thing for us locals; another for the outsider!
Of course, the RSS manages to mute all criticism of Modi.
Shivraj Singh Chouhan has reportedly denied the ET report. So has Manohar Parrikar!
Some internal democracy this!
In any case, the point I want to make is that Modi has been
a hugely divisive leader even within the BJP. As is true of his fan base which
is loyal and limited, but vocal, here too, he has a fiercely loyal but small
base of leaders supporting him. They infest TV studios and create the
impression that Modi is THE man. But every now and then, a Yashwant Sinha and a
Shatrughan Sinha embarrassingly creep out of the woodworks. Not to talk of the
scores of other party leaders who are waiting for the picture to become clearer
before they announce their stands.
Modi cant unite his own party. Not surprisingly, he cannot
unite his allies. Forget the JD(U). Even the Shiv Sena, one of its few staunch
allies of the BJP, has supported Sushma Swaraj for PM in the past. That’s
probably why Modi is trying to cozy up to the MNS. There is also fire brewing
in the party’s relations with the Shiromani Akali Dal, with Modi refusing to
accommodate Sikhs migrants in Kutch. What is worse is that Sikhs in the UK have
appealed that the UK should not allow Modi into their country (http://tinyurl.com/n8859fk).
Looks like the “anti-minority” tag that sticks irremovably to Modi has now been
extended to Sikhs as well. Forget the minorities, even those strongly opposed
to the Congress, be it the SP and BSP in
UP, the TMC or Left in WB, Jagan or TRS in AP or JD(U) or RJD in Bihar, don’t
want anything to do with Modi. Some PM candidate he will make!
Modi may divide his own party, and his allies. But the one
segment that he dominates is the journalists’ lobby. Everyone from Ashok Malik
to Madhu Kishwar to Swapan Dasgupta to Minhaz Merchant to many other gods of
journalism is a vocal supporter of Modi, willing even to ignore the most
serious of accusations levied against him by Vanzara. They are his/his party’s
real advocates in media. When they appear on TV, one knows the position they will
take even before the anchor announces the topic of discussion! They will
criticize the Congress when the going is bad (rupee etc) and also when things
improve (praising Raghuram Rajan and hinting that a good man in the government
would have cured India’s economic woes). Such is the quality of our seniormost
journalists! Unabashedly biased. And what is worse, they don’t even declare
their political leanings beforehand. They prefer to be called “senior
journalist”. These so called journalists should switch careers and become mere bloggers!
The real truth is that Modi’s announcement as PM
candidate next week will be the last in a series of good news that the Congress
has received in the last two weeks. The Congress knows that this move will
shift the whole electoral dialogue away from corruption and policy paralysis to
Godhra and Ayodhya. The party must be keeping its fingers crossed!
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